Comparing Kindle 2 with Sony PRS-505

November 23rd, 2009

Comparing Kindle 2 with Sony PRS-505, March 27, 2009
By robinne (CA)
For about 7 days, I owned both the Kindle 2 and Sony PRS-505 and was able to use and compare them. My intention was to buy and love the Kindle. I only purchased the PRS-505 after owning the Kindle for a few days and finding that it was not suiting my needs. Luckily I found a local store that carried the PRS 505 with a 30 day return policy (same as the Kindle).

I fell out of love with the Kindle because the gray text on gray background was actually quite distracting to me and I could not focus on reading. I found myself constantly changing the angle of the body, changing the font size up and down and the distance away from me. The resolution and reading experience with the PRS 505 was perfect and I loved it. But I was reluctant to return the Kindle because of the dictionary support, search feature, note taking capabilities, ease of turning pages, bookmarking and returning to book location. I found a huge benefit in being able to download book samples from Amazon; I was able to find many books I really would like to purchase and some…not so much. I tried out the free 14 day trial on newspaper downloads, what a great way to get your news- no advertising distractions, easy to navigate and automatically downloaded every day.

After a while though, I started to dislike the plastic body of the Kindle and the plastic creaking sound when turning pages. The WHITE color starting bothering me too. I don’t want a 1″ white border around my reading area. The Sony is much smaller, the reading area is dominant and the body is more solid. Once I got used to it, the navigation was easy too. The actual reading area (screen) is about the same in both readers…Sony might be slightly taller.

My choice to keep the Sony PRS-505 was based on the main purpose of a book reader, which is to read. I don’t need or want regular internet access on my book reader. I am already used to downloading files to my gadgets from my computer, so moving books from the PC to the reader is not a big deal. Now that I have many books downloaded, how often am I going to get a new book?

Either book reader can be used with Calibre software (free, but you can donate) to download daily news feeds (worldwide newspapers) and format documents for your reader. So, I can still get news on the Sony and they have RSS feeds available from the Sony site which I have not downloaded yet. One reason I was hesitant to go with the Sony was because it is not their latest model, so I thought it would be dated. That is not the case, and in fact the newer model, the PRS -700, does not have the screen clarity due to an extra layer of plastic to allow for touch-screen. Not worth the upgrade considering it still does not have dictionary support (but you can search and take notes). I’ll wait until the newest Sony (or Kindle) takes care of some of these drawbacks and for now I am perfectly happy with the Sony PRS-505.

In summary:
Kindle loses points for:
1) text contrast (the deal breaker)
2) creaky, plastic.
3) size. (although if I had not compared it to Sony, it would have been fine)
4) No directory organization for books – no hierarchy. This is minor, because you can save all your books at Amazon.com and load and unload them as you please. You don’t have to have 300 books all downloaded, at all times.
5) charging $30 for an accessory (cover) that is really needed for the product.
6) headphone jack at top of unit? where should the cord go?
7) Amount of time you have to hold the `off’ switch before powers down.

Kindle gets points for:
1. Dictionary support. Great feature.
2. book samples
3. Ease of downloading, and the integration with Amazon.com for shopping.
4. Search. Yea! Awesome feature.
5. Note taking ability.
6. easy free download of classic books.
7. E book pricing is low….most are $10 or less

Sony gets points for:
1. Compact size and sturdy – well made.
2. No frills face, easy to focus on reading only.
3. hierarchy of books, alphabetical sections (e.g. by author A-D).
4. lower overall price, with nice leather cover.
5. headphone jack at bottom of unit.
6. Easy to read, great resolution.

Sony loses points for:
1. The Sony store is cumbersome to navigate, and slow.
2. Fewer book choices. (100K vs 240K)
3. No availability of sample books
4. `100 free classic’ books offer: getting these books downloaded and into e-reader was frustrating – too time consuming, and the books are already free on Amazon. (offer expires 3/31/09).
5. Books cost more – about $2 more, sometimes $3 or $4 more than Amazon.
6. Is charged by USB to PC, not a wall charger. A charger is an extra $30. I don’t think I’ll need one, when am I ever away from a computer…never.

Comparing Kindle 2 with Sony PRS-505

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